Mister Nifty

Google is everywhere. It is plausible that almost every website you visit will be attached to Google somehow visibly or invisibly. Its footprint on how we communicate is simply massive and mind-boggling. Check out this video which better illustrates the point.

Whether we like it or not, Google is everywhere. Every click leads to another Google application, widget, or urchin. They have figured out how to permeate every part of the Internet with their message and method. There are no boundaries. They aim to index and control how content is served and analyzed on the net, and they’re doing an incredible job at it.

I was thinking about how this translates to the message and method of the Church. Can it be said of us that anywhere you turn in the community we are there? Can we look at any given neighborhood and see the footprint of a Bible study group or a prayer meeting? Can we go to any park and see the Message being preached? Can we walk into the projects and see the footprint of the church? Do we see a global effort in our community or just a territorial boundary that defines our small finite local effort? Do we have influence with the leaders and officials of our city? Can we say that every part of our region has been permeated with the Gospel where no one in our community can take a step without feeling its impact whether visibly or invisibly?

If a company can saturate a global network with method and message, even more so, we should do the same with the Gospel of the Kingdom.

When Internet Protocol or IP addresses were created 30 years ago, they created them using a 32 bit system. They never dreamed that we would ever run out of IP addresses. But, with the onslaught of smart phones and mobile computing, the world is slated to run out of IP address by next year. The developers of the current IP system never imagined the network would grow this big so they capped it at 32 bit. We are now facing a 128 bit system which would be similar to the USA forcing everyone to switch to HDTV signals. This would mean hardware and software tweaks worldwide.

How many times do we plan too small in our church structure only to find later that we should have increased our structure to match God’s vision and His harvest?

Listen to this interview explaining the IP shortage.

I found this study fascinating and fantastic. I think a lot of churches could learn from this behavioral study how to motivate their staff members and volunteers.

(via @stephenjudd)

I was reading a programming concepts textbook today and I came across this list that I thought might be useful for real life problems. The headings come from the book Problem Solving and Programming Concepts. The commentary is mine.  I’m sure you can take and port these concepts to your own line of work or life issues.

1. Identify the problem

Have you ever sat in a meeting and everyone wants to talk about problems? I’ve enduring countless meetings where problems were identified, but nothing was ever done to solve the problem. It’s easy to be a critic. Everyone has the ability to identify that a problem exists.

For instance, I set up Google Apps for our church recently. The secretary was accessing her email from two different clients. Even though we left all the mail on the server, she was only receiving some mail in one, but not in the other. She knew what the problem was about, but she had no idea what the problem actually was technically.

Get a room full of intelligent people and you can get a list as long of problems as long as your arm in just a matter of moments. It’s in our nature to find what’s wrong with a process or a person. It take much more character and brain power to get beyond finding problems to understanding problems.

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A few years ago I came up with an idea to help leaders stay connected with their congregations/leadership teams. This concept was birthed out of observation of many leaders only connecting with their congregation/leaders on a personal basis only during times of crisis or conflict.

We often view relationships as a time-consuming process that involves large chunks of our time. A leader who leads many people or leaders can feel overwhelmed with the burden of connecting. Many simply run from this burden and never make an effort to have any form of personal contact outside the functions of the church. Thus, the concept I call “2MPH” was birthed.

Two things about 2MPH

• The Premise – Two Miles Per Hour
  • Slow down from the busyness of life.
• The Application – Two Minutes Per Hour
  • Take two minutes out of every hour and connect with someone.

Get Your Calculator Out

I took this idea of two minutes per hour to the calculator and was amazed at the impact of these small time investments. Before I started my mad calculator skills, I factored in a 40-hour work week which equals 2,400 minutes of work time.

Here’s what I came up with:

• 2 minutes X 8 hours = 16 minutes / day
• 16 minutes X 5 work days = 80 minutes / week
• 80 minutes X 50 work weeks (minus Christmas and Thanksgiving) = 4,000 minutes / year (66 1/2 hours)
  

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It was almost eight years ago when I began working full-time at a decent size church. Part of my job description included creating print collateral pieces (fliers, posters, handouts, etc.). To tell you the truth, I was in way over my head. I had never worked with a printer other than my personal inkjet. I knew nothing about commercial printing. Right out of the gate, I was delegated with three large print projects. These projects were to be sent out to a national mailing list, so excellence was priority. To make a long story short, I designed numerous things incorrectly and the prints came back pixelated. I also payed too much for printing, and I left important dates off the projects. It was an absolute train wreck for me.

I got poked fun at by some leaders in my district because of my date errors, however my pastor/boss was more than gracious enough to let me fail on his budget nickel.  The horror of not presenting perfection and having it sent across the US was better than any secular design school I could have attended. There were a few things that I decided to do following this dark beginning to my print design career.

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